Parallel World

Cadence Weapon’s Polaris Music Prize-winning fifth album is his most political to date—which, coming from a Black rapper trying to survive in one of Canada’s most expensive cities, means it’s also his most personal. Setting his pugilistic rhymes to frantic, fractured beatscapes, *Parallel World* finds Rollie Pemberton vividly capturing the desperation and disorientation of living in Toronto circa 2021 through a distinctly Black lens. He shares his lived experiences of a place where immigrant neighborhoods are displaced in the name of rapid-transit expansion, politicians favor corporations over communities, and police surveillance is omnipresent both on the streets and in smartphones. “I don’t recognize the skyline/And I can’t see the sunshine,” he observes amid the future-shocked electronics of “Skyline,” assuming a crestfallen voice that could’ve come off a vintage blues 78, linking his present-day problems to a broader history of Black struggle. But as Cadence declares later on, he “don’t make tracks, I make anthems,” and with body-popping jams like “On Me” and “Ghost” (featuring a delirious cameo from fellow Polaris winner Backxwash), he delivers his searing social commentary with equal doses of absurdist humor and shout-it-out catharsis.

Although each Cadence Weapon album could be billed as his 'return to form,' the truth is that the Toronto-via-Edmonton rapper has never lost...